CARTOON OF THE DAY: Corbin's Puppet

Former AFC member and PNC/R MP, Anthony Vieira exposes AFC opportunism-says Granger is Corbin's puppet

AFC/PNC hooligans fail to disrupt PPP New York meeting

A group of around 12 hooligans recruited by the AFC and PNC failed in their bid to disrupt a meeting held in New York by the PPP during which President Jagdeo and the party's 2011 Presidential candidate Donald Ramotar spoke.

Hundreds packed the hall which consisted a wide cross section of mainly overseas based Guyanese who came out to offer their support to the visiting delegation. The success of the event was further underscored by the attendance of NY City Hall officialls and other Political Leaders.

Several of the individuals in attendance some of whom hailed from Queens and others from Brooklyn remarked that they came to the meeting to congratulate President Jagdeo and his visiting delegation for the progress in all sectors across Guyana which they have observed first hand during their visits back home over the past few years. They also encourged their fellow countrymen to not fall prey to those who want to destabalize Guyana's continued growth for their narrow political agenda; pointing to the fact that they were impressed that Guyana was able to withstand the effects of the Global Financial crisis and still find the means to further consolidate its development.

Photos of PPP New York meting with Donald Ramotar

Photos of PPP New York event with Donald Ramotar

Despite the urging by the PNC/AFC New York- based Guyanese turned out in their hundreds to support the party's meeting to introduce its 2011 Presidential Candidate Donald Ramotar. 12 paid protesters by the PNC/AFC collaboration held placards outside the meeting venue.

AFC's poll

I wonder which poll the AFC will come with this elections?

When Granger addresses the business community on May 11th..............

We hope that when PNCR Presidential candidate David Granger addresses members of the business community on May 11th, he speaks extensively about his over 40 year relationship with the PNC, particularly his tenure as Military Liaison to Forbes Burnham.

The PNC has inflicted untold pain and suffering to the majority of Guyanese during its reign.
Mr Granger is obligated to address these concerns.

Mark Benschop and his agents of terror threaten to kidnap Minister's kids.

Mark Benschop

Police are probing hate mail including threats to kidnap the two American-born children of Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud. Police Commissioner, Henry Greene confirmed to that Persaud filed a police complaint. He said the police are conducting investigations with a view to trace the origin of the mail that included photos of the Minister's five-year old girl and three-year old boy.

Asked whether security has been beefed up for the Agriculture Minister, the Police Commissioner said Persaud has not made any request. MinisterPersaud told members of the media that since receiving the mail at home and at his Regent Street office, he has notified the United States embassy here.

This latest act of terror comes on the heels of the publication of pictures of the Minister's children by a website owned and operated by Mark Benschop. On his online radio programme Benschop could be heard telling his viewers "these people don't know that we can reach over their shoulders and touch them at anytime" whilst making slanderous remarks about the Minister and his family. Benschop's operations are funded by US based drug lord, Tookie Van Rossum, who supplied the 'Fineman' gang with arms, ammunition and financial resources.

Benschop is also connected to several shady characters that includes known criminals from the South Georgetown area. One such person confessed a few months back that Benschop had paid him and another man $35,000 to accompany him as thugs during a visit to Kwame Mc Coy's house in Diamond on the EBD.

Teachers receive comprehensive benefit package

-Union hails agreement as”giant leap forward”

Teachers are set to receive a comprehensive benefit package, including a 5% increase in salaries retroactive to the start of this year, in a five-year deal reached yesterday between the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) and the Ministry of Education.

Colin Bynoe, the President of the GTU, hailed the package as a giant leap forward for teachers at a time when several governments, including those in the Caribbean, are cutting back.

The 5% increase in salaries will be effective for five years, including this year. But it was more than the increase in salaries that the Union was excited about.

Minister of Education Shaik Baksh said that the benefit package includes a scholarship programme for teachers and will give priority to those who want to pursue Mathematics and Science.

Bynoe said that this scholarship programme was important as it will help to provide an incentive for teachers not only to improve their education, but to stay in Guyana, thus reducing the need to employ Mathematics and Science teachers from outside the country.

Minister Baksh said that it is the government’s intention to have 90% of teachers trained by the end of 2015 and as their education level improves, so will their remuneration. He added that the Ministry is encouraging teachers to pursue studies at the Post Graduate level.

The Union was particularly excited about one of the clauses in the agreement that would seek to correct the irregularities with teachers’ salaries, whereby a teacher who had just entered the system receives the same pay as a teacher who would have been serving for 10 years or so.

As a result, $50 million has been set aside to address the issue in the interim.
The package of duty-free concessions for teachers is also slated to be expanded. Currently, only certain categories of head teachers are allowed duty-free concessions to buy a vehicle, but Baksh said other categories of teachers are being earmarked for inclusion.

Teachers are also set to receive an increase in their uniform allowance from $6,000 to $8,000.
Baksh announced movement with discussions to increase home-ownership opportunities for teachers who particularly need.


The President of the Union noted while teachers have to “line up” and apply for house lots as everyone else does, 100 house lots will be set aside to be allocated to teachers every year. These, the Education Minister added, will be given to teachers with pressing needs in all regions of the country. These teachers will be determined by the Union.

In addition, a revolving housing fund for teachers could kick in by May 31. The Fund currently stands at $200 million, but Baksh said $40 million will be added every year over the next five years. Teachers would be able to access the Fund to build their own homes.

In an effort to encourage more teachers to move to the Hinterland, a comprehensive package includes a $30,000 per month housing grant, and a travel allowance for teachers, their spouses and children under age 18 to travel to the Coast every term on a return trip. They are also provided with additional benefits that come with the Remote Teacher’s Incentive scheme.

Benschop threatens 'cock up' over sodomy revelation

Ingraham Lashley 

Ingraham Lashley, also known as 'cock up' has contacted us again, this time alleging that he was threatened by Mark Benschop over a story carried on this blog. Lashley, an ex convict who served a lengthy jail sentence after being found guilty in 1987, for murder had told Liveinguyana that he sodomized then inmate, Mark Benschop, on more than one occasions. He said the first time it happened Benschop cried for days but after it became routine. However, after his story was published here he received several threatening phone calls from Benschop, who's voice he's very familiar with, from telephone # 644-2635.

He said Benschop told him that he's a dead man walking.

Why was there no call for shared governance prior to 1992?

For Eric Phillips to defend what his cohort said he must be seen as a collaborator. What the 1823 slave rebellion has to do with Guyana and Guyanese when Tacuma Ogunseye was talking about shared governance in Guyana?

Who Eric Phillips is trying to fool? Indeed, Walter Rodney lost his life while fighting for social justice for Guyanese of all races and Tacuma Ogunseye spent years in jail for this same principle, fighting for all races in Guyana, especially the downtrodden.
Eric Phillips, did Cheddi and Mrs. Jagan not spend time in jail for social justice for all too, mostly for African Guyanese?

Again Eric Phillips who are you trying to fool saying ACDA has not endorsed any winner-take-all elections and never will. ACDA has, for the last 19 years, beginning with its foundation documents which were written by Eusi Kwayana in 1992, called for shared governance.

Eric Phillips why only from 1992 to present day you and your ACDA, Eusi Kwayana and PNC are calling for shared governance?

What are all of you hiding? What is the agenda since none of you ever called for shared governance prior to 1992?

All of you should be ashamed of yourselves in talking about "winner takes all at the polls" Go to South Africa and Zimbabwe and tell them that.

T. King: Where were your loud roaring voices when loser PNC took all and then some at the polls?
Oh, I forgot. Back in the PNC’s hey days, it used to be "loser takes all" and all Guyanese had no other choice but to live with it and deal with it.

Phillips said: “ACDA does not see how any elections under this system can be free and fair or free of fear.”
Phillips, were elections under PNC misrule free and fair and free of fear from the other side?

Stand up and tell the Guyanese nation how many citizens of Guyana were killed, murdered, slaughtered by the GDF from 1992 to present day trying to protect ballot boxes.

Eric Philips first you must go and tell the people of South Africa and Zimbabwe that their electoral systems are not fair and that the white man must share governance with the blacks.

Liveinguyana will present Christopher Ram with a copy of this book on domestic violence to help in his rehabilitation.

Sensationalism will not distract people from the facts Sasenarine Singh

-Guyana’s sugar industry was not in excellent condition when the PNC vacated office in 1992

Nigel Green: I respond to Sasenarine Singh’s letter in the Kaieteur News of April 26, 2011. Sasenarine Singh may believe that employing sensationalism in his letter will distract readers from the facts, but unfortunately for him, this is not the case. And the facts were outlined in my letter. I have already dismissed, Sasenarine Singh’s “statements”, and provided the correct data to prove that he is a malicious distorter of facts. Hence, I completely understand his pathetic retort.

Unless Sasenarine Singh is a very literate fool, he fully understands that the ‘facts’ in his letter, through those figures, implied that the sugar industry was flourishing when the PPP came to power. This was not the case.

The sugar industry had troubles long before it landed in the hands of the PPP government. Singh must know that he cannot infinitely propagate lies.

In the case of Singh’s letter, the facts could no longer be distorted, so with his back against the wall, he reveals his true nature, employing personal attacks to distract readers from the actual facts of the matter. I will never apologize for setting the record straight. Guyanese are intelligent people. They can read between the lines and understand what the ‘facts’ are really about.

As I said before, Guyana’s sugar industry was not in excellent condition when the PNC vacated office in 1992.

Sasenarine Singh knows this very well. It is amazing that he would try to throw these ‘below the belt’ attacks because he cannot appropriately argue the facts. Sasenarine Singh, in my opinion, is a lost cause to the AFC, as that party will be a lot better off without him.

Continue scratching ya one side 'big foot' Lurlene.

Every now and again Lurlene Nestor reaches under her desk in that empty room she occupies at Congress Place as a paid letter writer, removing the poultice over her left side 'big foot' to take a scratch. Lurlene scratches and she scratches all day long. See here last scratch here

Whom or what constitutes the GPA?

The Guyana Press Association is actually a group of self-titled Journalists seemingly incapable of separating objective, factual reporting from their personal political biases.
None of their work is objective, factual, an honest effort to keep the people informed or is aimed at urging the government to take some corrective action.
Instead the GPA's members mostly use their profession as a cloak for vitriolic attacks on the current Government.
If the PNC were to by some miracle attain the leadership of this country most of these media houses would disappear.

Stabroek News persists with its nastiness and misrepresentations.

In its editorial today the newspaper falsely proclaimed:

The kind of encounter that reportedly had been planned for Messrs. Ramotar, Granger and Ramjattan would, in all likelihood, have been witnessed by an audience of a few hundred mostly academics and political supporters on either side who would have gone there either for the intellectual exercise or to lend support to their candidate.




Stabroek News, doing the bidding of its maters(the AFC) is continuing with its false propagation that the PPP/C Presidential Candidate Mr. Donald Ramotar has avoided a debate with other Presidential Candidates when it knows fully well that the letter from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Guyana did not invite Mr. Ramotar to a debate or forum with other Presidential Candidates. Further, this could not have been the case since the said letter was sent weeks before Mr. Ramotar won the unanimous nomination of the leadership and membership of the PPP.

Spreading the Easter cheers.

MORE children are smiling today, thanks to President Bharrat Jagdeo’s longstanding tradition of spreading Easter cheer to some of Guyana’s less fortunate.
The President, accompanied by People’s Progressive Party/Civic Presidential Candidate, Mr. Donald Ramotar, distributed kites to more than 250 children on the East Coast of Demerara on Friday, so they could go kite-flying tomorrow.

Unlike his multiple-stop mission Thursday, the President made one stop at Lusignan, where hundreds of screaming children, from as far as Mahaica, were gathered awaiting his arrival, and, of course, their kites.
And President Jagdeo did not disappoint, as, braving the blazing sun, His Excellency, ably assisted by Mr. Ramotar, made sure that every child present got a kite.
After about an hour of distribution, hugs and kisses from grateful children and their parents or guardians, the President and Mr. Ramotar departed the community to cheers and waves

Guyana’s climate advocacy propels it to co-chair REDD partnership

Guyana has gained such credibility on the international stage where climate change discussions are concerned, that from July this year, the country will co-chair the International REDD plus Partnership, a voluntary alliance of rainforest countries and donors, aimed at scaling up REDD-plus actions and finance.
This is according to President Bharrat Jagdeo, who delivered the feature address at the opening of a seminar to mark UN International Year of Forests, held on Monday at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC). He noted that Germany was the other co-chair from the developed countries, as the structure allows for a co-chair each from developing and developed nations.
Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle on Monday, Guyana’s lead negotiator to the UNFCCC, Andrew Bishop said Guyana announced its candidacy some months ago, but was formally elected at recent meetings in Bangkok, Thailand, in the margin of UN climate change talks there.
“The decision for Guyana to serve as co-chair from July 1, 2011 was unanimous, from a field that included all of the major rainforest countries of the world and REDD donors,” Bishop said.
Through its ascension to the co-chair, Guyana will seek to ramp up the Partnership’s activities from its current baseline work to greater advocacy for scaled up REDD actions and results-based payments for rainforest countries.
Bishop said the International REDD Partnership will neither replace the formal UNFCCC negotiations on REDD-plus, and neither will it prejudice them. “It will help to inform the UNFCCC negotiations,” he said.
“This alliance includes close to 40 rainforest countries, and approximately 10 to 15 other partners on the donor side,” he said, adding: “One of the things that the partnership has done is to establish a database system that could be shared by all rainforest countries, so we can see what each other is doing, we can share experiences, we can share data.”
Giving an example of what he meant, he said Guyana’s avoided deforestation model could be put on the database for other countries to learn from.
He said the body has been doing a lot of baseline work, such as what the needs of the countries are, assessing what the current level of resources are for REDD-plus, and assessing what the gaps are.
“So the partnership is involved in what [we refer to] as a needs assessment and a gap analysis with regards to what is needed by REDD countries to conserve their forests and practice sustainable forest management, and what gaps exist between the level of resources out there and the level of resources that they need,” he said.
Bishop said the partnership has been involved in a third area, which is looking at the effectiveness of the multilateral agencies in delivering on REDD-plus. “This takes the form of a study, looking at for example the World Bank, UN REDD, looking at how they are operating and to what extent they have been effective, and perhaps to make recommendations on how to improve the effectiveness at the institutional level,” the technocrat said.

Christopher Rams beats his "sweet woman"

Christopher Ram inflicted asevere beating on his sweet woman, an ex employee of his, after he she received a text message which she quickly deleted while the two were in bed last evening.The woman was rushed to Woodlands Hospital by relatives this morning who are tight lipped about the incident. A source close to the young lady told media operatives that she was beaten badly about her body and was vomiting blood when relatives decided to take her to receive medical attention. She was admitted and was visited by Ram this afternoon. He also apologised to the family and urged that the matter be treated with confidentiality.

The Biography of a Crook: Balwant Persaud

Balwant Persaud

Balwant Persaud is a known criminal with links to several drug dealers and he's also connected to the to the back track trade. In 2010 Persaud along with Alim Samad, his criminal associate were accused by several persons of ripping them off with promises to get them into Canada illegally in exchange for hefty sums. After being charged Balwant Persaud got several gunmen from Albouystown to shoot up his office and faked a robbery also.

Man confesses to sodomizing Benschop while in prison

Ingraham Lashley

Ingraham Lashley, also known as 'cock up' is an ex convict who served a lengthy jail sentence after being found guilty in 1987, for murder committed during a robbery. However, what is interesting is that in an interview with this blog he told us that he shared a cell with former Treason accused Mark Benschop in 2003, and confessed to forcibly sodomizing him. He said on the first occasion it happened Benschop cried for days but after it became routine. He said he was really in love with Benschop and was left a very dejected man when Benschop was moved to solitary confinement by prison authorities.

Tarron Khemraj’s conclusions are biased and directed towards support for the AFC

Tarron Khemraj

Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr): The letters by Theron Khemraj, with all his charts and economic data, are all good for the political appetite of this nation and should be welcomed, but his conclusions are all biased and directed towards support for the AFC. Here is a classic example of a political novice trying to manipulate our minds because, somehow, he thinks that we, the citizens of Guyana are stupid and ignorant of political instincts; he claims that only the AFC can bring the changes and the able leadership needed to carry out such changes.

Mr. Editor, let us examine the record of the trio who lead the AFC and dominate that party’s hierarchy with no real level of democracy, except the rotation of the trio, playing musical chairs with the Guyanese public. Mr. Trotman, formerly with the PNC, for many years, upheld the communist leaning constitution, never speaking out against the breakdown of democratic norms and the subversion of free and democratic elections; never speaking out against government intervention in all aspects of our life from the high duties on vehicles to our flawed foreign policy, which
always leaned against the USA.
Mr. Ramjattan, who, for all his political life believed in communism and all its undemocratic and dictatorial politics, never spoke up against our flawed constitution once the PPP got into power and never questioned massive government intervention in our political and economic life; only when he left the PPP did he questioned the flaws in our systems which he himself helped to create. Ms. Holder, formerly of the WPA, who for many years lived with the flaws created by individuals like Trotman and Ramjattan and their respective ties with Stalinist socialism/communism, wants us to believe that she, holding hands with those who never were interested in any changes for Guyana, will bring a new dispensation to our political equations.
Mr. Editor, this trio of leaders of the AFC want us to believe their “conversion” and extrapolate that into votes for them; but let us go further and examine their record for the last five years in Parliament under their ‘conversion’ to democratic principles. What have they accomplished for the citizens who voted for them believing their ‘conversion’? The answer is nothing much, especially in defending the rights of workers, the creation of a unified opposition and the fight for the empowerment of a true legion of small business enterprises.
They have failed to provide the momentum for our youth to get involved in politics and the economic future of our country. The youths of Guyana are not, in any way, inspired by the triangular leadership of the AFC. Enter Khemraj and Sasenarine Singh, trying to convince the voters with their long-winded analyses and flawed conclusions, that they are the saviours of democracy and free enterprise, when, in fact, they are the same old, same old with no real answers for our future, except asking us to put our trust into the hands of former communists.
Mr. Editor, Mr. Theron Khemraj should check out the world, and he’ll see that everywhere old time communists are in power, things for those citizens are less than fortunate.
The AFC has time and again, refused unity of the opposition and really, these people are just splitters and will never achieve anything much, except a lot of grandstanding and self congratulations as this country wallows in political bickering.
As Khemraj continues to write his nonsense he will see, at the end of the day, that the people of Guyana will reject the AFC and render them powerless in this upcoming election.

AFC/PNC announce marriage.

-wedding reception date to be announced shortly

Demerara Waves: The Alliance For Change (AFC) and splinters of the main opposition Peoples National Congress Reform (PNCR) are discussing the possibility of a coalition, officials from both sides said Wednesday.

AFC prime ministerial candidate, Sheila Holder said her party has been holding talks with sections of the PNCR but she declined to provide names.

“We have been involved in talks with factions of the PNC, personalities from within the PNC,” said Holder who chairs the AFC’s alliance engagement committee.

AFC Chairman and presidential candidate, Khemraj Ramjattan refused to divulge the names of the PNC persons with whom talks are being held, citing confidentiality during the negotiating stage.

ACDA's threat viewed as the politics of desperation by a PNC fringe grouping

Tacuma Ogunseye

Rickey Singh: The date for Guyana’s next general election, expected to be held during August this year, has not yet been announced. But campaigning has already begun and with it the start of boastful promises “for change” as well as customary sniping and ridicule. What, however, came as a political shocker this past weekend was the threat of “violent struggle in the streets” should the incumbent People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) return to power and refuses to share a new government with the parliamentary opposition.

Declaring what he termed “the riot act”, was a well known militant of the African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA), Tacuma Ogunseye, at a meeting held at an East Coast Demerara village (Beterverwagting) some seven miles from the capital Georgetown.
First reported by the online news service “demerarawaves.com”, operated by former Caribbean News Agency (CANA) Georgetown-based journalist, Dennis Chabrol, the race-based political threat was subsequently published on Monday by the public sector-owned ‘Guyana Chronicle” with the permission of Chabrol.
The threat by ACDA of ‘racial insurrection’ could objectively be regarded as the politics of desperation by an organization viewed in some quarters as a fringe social group, with a long supporting role for the main opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) with Ogunseye himself relishing in maintaining a controversial political stance. Read more...........

PPP debunks false AFC debate claim

-Ramotar never invited to debate or forum with other Presidential Candidates

The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) has issued a statement, debunking what it described as an “amusing and outright dishonest” suggestion by the Alliance For Change (AFC) and its “media mouthpiece”, that the PPP/C Presidential Candidate Mr. Donald Ramotar has avoided a debate with other Presidential Candidates. The PPPC, in a statement, pointed out that the letter from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Guyana did not invite Mr. Ramotar to a debate or forum with other Presidential Candidates.
“In fact, this could not have been the case as it was sent weeks before Mr. Ramotar won the unanimous nomination of the leadership and membership of the People’s Progressive Party,” the party contended.
It noted that the PPP/C’s Presidential Candidate continues to avail himself to any public discourse/debate, especially as it relates to the proud track-record and legacy of the PPP/C Government and the future of Guyana.
To end the misleading statements, the PPPC released to the media the letter of invitation from the Faculty of Social Sciences, UG and the subsequent response.

Gov't dissatisfied with WICB’s decision to axe Chanderpaul and Sarwan

Subsequent to the announcement by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) that Guyanese stalwart cricketers Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan were among the players who were omitted from the One Day International (ODI) squad to play against Pakistan, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony wrote to the Chairman of the Board of Selectors asking them to outline their selection criteria in a bid to understand the rationale behind their selection (omission). Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) Dr. Roger Luncheon, at a post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President yesterday, said Cabinet was dissatisfied with the entire situation and stated that the WICB’s response, “did not reflect the outrage that cricket lovers in the region felt over the omission of their cricketing stalwarts.”
Minister Anthony’s letter was responded to by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of WICB, Ernest Hilaire who stated that the reaction to the non-selection of Chanderpaul and Sarwan has been unnecessarily extreme but it speaks to the passion which exists in Guyana for the cricket, a fact which has always been recognized and appreciated by the WICB.
Notwithstanding this however, Government is encouraging Guyanese participation and continued interest in the evolution of cricket in the West Indies and Guyana.
Moreover, Government welcomes fully, the Pakistani team for the one-day match to be held at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.